Between the Moon and Her Night (Between Life and Death #3)

Chapter 20

Von

A fter we’d emptied the bottle and Folkoln left, I gave in to the aggravating chain yanking on my ankle—the damn bond and stubborn female were going to be the end of me. I tracked her to one of the castle’s five kitchens, but just before I walked in, my foot paused mid-step—

Aurelia was laughing.

It was rich and breathy. Infectious. I couldn’t help but smile.

I needed to see for myself . . . see what my mate looked like when she was laughing. I cloaked myself in my shadows and stepped inside the kitchen—feeling an immediate change in temperature due to the continuously lit hearth, steaming pots, and cooking foods.

Aurelia was sitting at one of the many tables, an empty plate and bowl resting before her. She clapped her long, elegant fingers together. An elderly looking man with blue- pale skin sat across from her. He waved his arms around in the air, telling some grand story. But whatever it was about was lost to me, because all I could hear was her beautiful, decadent laughter.

When the man finished his tale and she began to dab at the tears gathered on her lower lash line with the back of her finger, I wanted to materialize and command the old man to tell another story just so I could hear her laughter again.

I wondered what it would be like to hear her laugh like that for me.

Leaning against the wall, I watched her. Just as I had done countless times before when I stood outside her bedchamber’s windows, watching as she brushed her hair while she overlooked her orchard. She had been so proud of it, of all that she had created. And what had that prick Aurelius done with something she took so much pride in?

He had gone and cut down every one of her trees.

As much as I wanted to rip his throat out for hurting her so deeply, his actions were the catalyst that drove her into my open, waiting arms. Now she was in my castle, not his—where she belonged.

A woman who was covered in vicious burn marks walked over to the table, her scars telling me that fire had most likely been her end. She began to gather the empty plates and bowls while asking in her heavily accented voice, “Can I get ye two another bowl of stew? Perhaps another biscuit?”

The man who sat across from Aurelia shook his head. “Thank you, Davina, but I canna have another nip. Ye outdo yourself every time.”

I eyed his blue, pale skin —

Sailor’s Plague.

It became rampant on ships about a century ago, spreading quickly through contaminated drinking water. It made the mortals unable to control their bowels. As their bodies became racked with dehydration, their blood would thicken, thus starving the infected of oxygen and turning their skin a sickly blue. It wasn’t uncommon for them to be dead by nightfall. Although the plague became dominant on ships, it soon spread inland, claiming even more lives.

The Da’Nu had risen rather impressively during that period, although it wasn’t nearly as bad during the Death Plague. That one had delivered me thousands of souls, the worst plague in mortal history. I felt a tinge insulted when I learned they had named the sickness after me. If I wanted to take mortal lives, I could rack up a tally much higher than some silly little plague ever could.

When the Sailor’s Plague ended, the mortals needed someone to blame, and so they placed it on the sailors. The Goddess of Sickness had rolled her eyes at that and decided to release a new virus for good measure.

The woman—Davina—turned to Aurelia and asked, “And how about ye, love? Can I get ye anythin’ else?”

Aurelia’s eyes darted to the empty bowl, thinking over the woman’s offer.

Davina chuckled, a joyful, hearty sound. “A blind person could see ye’ve still got the look of hunger in ye eyes. My goodness, lass, how long has it been since ye ate last? Never mind that, I’ll fetch ye another bowl and a biscuit.”

My lips thinned—

I certainly was not blind, and yet, I had not seen that my mate was . . . hungry . My ego felt a bit wounded by that. It was a strange feeling. One I didn’t particularly care for.

Aurelia was an anomaly. I had fed her my blood a few hours ago, and yet she was still hungry . . . for food, it would seem. Once again, her body was proving itself to be more mortal than immortal. Such a curiosity, my mate.

Perhaps that was why she was quick to anger before.

She certainly seemed to be in better spirits now.

Aurelia thanked Davina. The woman gave her a warm smile, gathered the remaining dishes on her tray, and then hurried over to one of the sinks. It didn’t take very long for Aurelia and Early to strike up another conversation. Occasionally, something he said would bring a twist to her lips and she’d bless him with a smile.

I was both thankful for the old man and jealous of him. Thankful that his stories could make her laugh, jealous that I wasn’t the one earning her breathtaking smiles. Although I had known Aurelia for centuries, there was so much about her that I had left to discover. It was something I could easily commit myself to, because she was the other half of my soul. The female I had waited millennia for.

It didn’t take very long for Davina to return. She unloaded a bowl of steaming stew and a plate with a lightly browned biscuit from her tray, setting them before Aurelia.

“Thank you,” she said, smiling.

“Of course,” Davina replied before she returned to her duties.

Then, I watched as my future queen’s poised and perfect manners were abandoned, all in the name of food. She inhaled, and I mean fucking inhaled it. And when I was certain she was done, she used her thumb to clean up the breadcrumbs, popping it in her mouth and sucking it clean.

A grin touched my lips—I’d found her weakness.

Food.

After Aurelia said her goodbyes, she stepped out of the kitchen and into the hallway. Hidden in my umbra, I stood behind her, her body a breath from mine. My fingers itched at my side, tempted to reach for her, to drag my knuckles down her arm and watch her responsive skin prickle in my wake.

She glanced to her left, to the stairwell that would take her back to my bedchambers, and then to her right, to a path that would lead her further away. Head swiveling, she looked back to the stairs and my breath faltered—was my headstrong little female thinking of returning to me?

As if the question had been spoken out loud, she shook her head and went the other direction.

A muscle kicked in my jaw as I ground my molars together. Headstrong indeed .

I stalked after her.

She tossed her head over her shoulder. “I know you’re there.” Her voice could have rivalled the throes of winter—it was a bitter, bitter cold. The kind that ate away at one’s nerves and turned their skin a deathly purplish black.

My shadows peeled away as I stepped through them. “How did you know?”

“The bond has relaxed. It does not pull like it did before,” she answered, her long legs keeping up their quick pace. “So I figured your bastard self had to be close.”

“Clever goddess,” I mused.

“Not clever enough to stop being tricked by you,” she snarled, her sourness an emotion I could taste on my tongue.

Ah yes, I had heard of that, too, that as mates we could feel each other’s emotions when they were running high. And right now, hers were being shoved down my throat. That was going to take some getting used to.

“I did not trick you,” I stated. “I claimed what belongs to me.”

Her feet came to a sudden stop as her rage barreled into me like a wall of flame chewing through a buffet of dead bushes. That was all the warning I had before she turned around and thundered towards me, her hair defying gravity as it swirled around her.

“I am not an object to be claimed!” she shouted. Her voice was like a whip, striking against the castle walls. And although she had not struck me, it felt like she had. This anger of hers, it was visceral, raw, and it cut deep.

I knew that she was not an object, nor did I view her like one.

That was not what I had meant. She belonged to me, just as I belonged to her. We were two halves of the same star, finally returned to one another after centuries apart. We were inevitable. And yet, the idea of it, it made her feel as if she were an object. Something to be placed on a shelf and admired.

Because that’s what the fucker had done to her.

I didn’t know the entirety of what went on between her and Aurelius, but I knew enough about how he treated her. About the rigid clothes he made her wear and the limited love he showed her. How he made her act like someone she was not. That was all she had known, and now her understanding of belonging to someone had been severely damaged for it.

My gaze softened. “Is that how he made you feel?” I asked, although I already held the answer.

Her mouth popped open, and then it clamped shut. She shook her head. “I’m not having this conversation with you.”

When she went to turn around, to walk away, I grabbed her arm and pulled her back towards me. “Ah, ah, ah, love.” I snatched her chin, angling her face to mine. “You can run from things all you like, but eventually, they will catch up with you.”

She tore her jaw from my fingers. “You, of all people, do not get to give me advice.”

“If not me, then who, exactly?” I challenged as I peered down at the stubborn little creature. “Because the last time I checked, I’m the only soul in the entire Three Realms who gives a damn about you.”

“Fuck you!” she growled as her hands shot for my face. Before she connected, I caught her wrists and swung her so that her back was against the wall. She landed with a soft thud , her pretty pink lips parting as the air escaped from her lungs. I pressed her arms beside her head, keeping her pinned there. The heat of her body mingled with mine, electricity shooting between the two of us in a storm of anger and . . .

I could taste something sweet and crisp blooming on my tongue.

It tasted just like an apple—just like her.

This was what her lust tasted like .

Her words repeated in my mind, Fuck you .

I couldn’t help myself.

“Do I look cheap?” I asked, the intensity of her desire drawing my lips just above hers. “At least buy me dinner first.”

She glared daggers at me.

Then her lips smashed into mine.